Facility Operator
Brian Story (517) 355-5762

Faculty Coordinator
Pete Sweeney

Location
3465 Forest Road
East Lansing, MI 48824

The MSU feed mill is located just east of the intersection of Forest and College roads. South of the main MSU campus, the Mill is in close proximity to MSU livestock farms.

Visitor Information
Visitors are always welcome. The Mill is in operation from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Those wanting to visit should make an appointment with the facility manager. Please wear clean clothes and shoes.

Mission
The Feed Mill's mission is to provide safe, nutritious and palatable feed for livestock. The mill serves the animal farms and research units at MSU by acquiring, receiving, storing, milling, mixing and delivering feed as needed.

Facility Description
In December of 2001, a renovation project was completed at the MSU Feed Mill. With funding from the Michigan Animal Initiative and the Department of Animal Science, two 26,000-bushel corn bins, two 24-ton soybean meal bins, a high-speed leg, new grain dump, a 1.5-ton mixer, roller mill and four 1,000 bushel bins were added to the Mill.

The high-speed leg and receiving pit increased the Mill's receiving capacity from 2,000 bushels per day to 12,000 bushels per day. The 52,000 bushel corn storage is a major improvement, allowing for the use of the same quality grain throughout the entire year. Formerly, corn was delivered on a weekly basis and varied from week to week. This is very important in conducting nutrition research, in that the same corn can now be used in animal diets throughout the entire experiment, thereby reducing experimental error due to differing types of corn over time. The increased corn storage capacity allows the university to purchase corn in larger quantities, with bargaining power to buy the highest quality ingredients.

New smaller storage bins allow for full semi-trailer delivery of soybean meal at lower costs and the ability to store necessary quantities of "identity preserved" grains and feedstuffs (e.g. mycotoxin contaminated wheat, nutrient-dense corn, variety specific oats, barley, and whole beans). The new roller mill uses two corrugated presses to crush the grain resulting in more uniform particle size. The custom-made mixer can mix consistent batches of feed from 250 to 3,000 pounds.

Approximately 1,500 to 1,700 tons of complete feed are manufactured at the MSU Feed Mill each year. The new features help strengthen the quality of animal care and research at Michigan State University, which eventually provides more useful information to students and livestock producers.